Comment on Kaestner, “revisiting the bracero guest worker reforms”

In Clemens, Lewis, and Postel (2018), we evaluate one of the largest active labor market policy interventions of its kind: the federal government decision to bar almost half a million Mexican bracero workers from the U.S. labor market in the 1960s. We—henceforth CLP—found no evidence that this policy intervention raised wages or employment for U.S. workers. Robert Kaestner (2020) likewise presents no evidence that this policy raised wages or employment for U.S. workers. Apparently there is consensus that no such evidence exists. What Kaestner does instead is to state three speculations.

Duke Scholars

Author Hannah M Postel Sanford School of Public Policy